Growing the Desert Garden

Welcome to the Desert Garden, with garden coach Tyler Storey, where we talk about everything having to do with gardening and landscaping in the Desert Southwest. From composting to Cercidium and agaves to arugula — we'll cover everything you want to know to grow your own beautiful Desert Garden.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Two Lady Beetle larvae at different stages of pupation, together on a single pine needle of the Italian Stone Pine here at The Ranch. The upper larva is still recognizable as a mature larva, and has just recently attached to the needle, probably within the last day. The lower one is nearly done pupating and clearly looks like an adult Lady Beetle. These appear to be Ashy Gray Lady Beetles, noted for their voracious appetite for consuming other insects, and appearing in very high numbers on the Stone Pine this Spring. Interestingly, the upper larva has attached itself head-downwards; perhaps finding its progress blocked, it just settled in where time and circumstance dictated.

Heritage and Open-pollinated seeds

The Ranch

The Ranch is a red-brick ranch-style house on a typical urban lot in Central Phoenix, built in 1942 in what was then an end-of-the-trolley-line suburb. By today's standards it sits squarely in downtown.